May Memoir: Ca va? Stories from Rural Life in Southern France, Chapter 26: Hunting Mushrooms

Welcome to May MEMOIR!

Day 27

For the entire month of May, I'll be sharing part of each chapter from my memoir, Ca va?  Stories from Rural Life in Southern France.

I’ve made jams, collected chestnuts, and picked apples, but one thing I’ve never tried is harvesting wild mushrooms, it just seems too dangerous, for many reasons.  They are however, quite a delicacy, a passion for some, and something some people think are worth putting a stink up over.

Chapter 26: Hunting Mushrooms

Christophe often tells of one specific fall day while he was working outside with Mousier Gousse and could barely walk across the road because of the constant flow of cars.

“Why don’t you gather mushrooms?”  I ask Christophe one day while witnessing a stream of cars going by.

“First”, he starts.  “I don’t have enough time on the weekends with everything that needs to be done here, and second, I’ve seen it cause problems in the village that I just want to avoid.”

“What kind of problems?”  I ask.

“It’s petty, but many people don’t want others picking mushrooms on their land, even if it half way up the mountain.  I’ve heard of property owners taking full baskets away from people who found mushrooms on their land.  The people are wrong for not asking if they can look for mushrooms there, but claiming the basket to be your own does not rectify the situation”, he says.

“How can they do that?” 

“In a sense, they are correct.  If it is on your land, you are the owner of it, like apples growing on your apple tree.  Other people cannot just come and pick them.  But, in another sense, it’s absolutely ridiculous.  It’s just mushrooms.  I guess I don’t gather mushrooms because I don’t want to be accused of that; it’s easier to stay out of things.”

“You’re kidding me?  People are really that petty about a mushroom?”  I ask in disbelief.

“Yeah, and unless you know what you are doing, it could be dangerous.  There are several toxic mushrooms out there.  I don’t know the difference enough to take a chance with something I find in the garden”, he says.

“So all these people who come here are mushroom experts?”  I ask.

“No, not at all, but you can always take a mushroom to a pharmacy if they are not around.”

I laugh at the thought of bringing a wild mushroom into a nationwide pharmacy chain in the U.S.  I think I would be arrested for trying to cause a panic.

“No, really, it’s taken very seriously here”, Christophe says without a laugh.  “A country pharmacist has a lot of responsibility.  They have courses in mushroom identification while in school.”

With that, my chuckle is erased as I realize how even after a few years of living with Christophe, I have a lot to learn about my surroundings.